In a Houston courtroom, a prosecutor on Tuesday described a murder that she said reflects a complicated web of drug dealers, enforcers and others connected to the city's illegal cocaine trade.

Prosecutor Kari Allen recounted the events of July 17, 2009, when two men in a van chased Isaias Valdez III as he barreled down the North Freeway toward downtown Houston just after midnight.

As they got closer to Valdez's Dodge pickup, the passenger in the van pulled out an assault rifle and opened fire on the 33-year-old, hitting him twice, prosecutors said in court Tuesday.

Valdez lost control of his car, slammed into the concrete barrier in the 2700 block of the freeway near Patton.

Other drivers stopped to help and found he had been shot. Valdez later died at the hospital.

Stephen Siros, 36, the accused wheelman, later bragged that it was his driving that ended Valdez's life, Allen said Tuesday during opening statements of Siros' murder-for-hire trial. He is accused of agreeing to take money to kill Valdez, elevating the charge to capital murder.